The FBI has launched a new background-check system that notifies counterterrorism agents when suspects on its terrorist watch list attempt to buy guns, but regulations prohibit those officials from obtaining details if the transaction occurs, federal officials say. The rules are the result of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's interpretation of the Brady gun-control law, which bars authorities from sharing information with investigators about legal gun buyers and does not prohibit terrorism suspects from buying firearms, officials said. However, this policy highlights the inconsistencies within the Department of Justice's approach to privacy. While the DOJ is wiling to protect suspected terrorist's right to privacy when buying guns, they are far less accommodating when it comes to airline passengers or library patrons.
U.S. weapons giant Lockheed Martin has signed a multi-million dollar deal to play a key role in the collection of data for the 2006 census. One of the world's largest weapons manufacturers, Lockheed Martin will have access to confidential information of Canadian citizens, which has privacy activists up in arms. The Council of Canadians is calling on citizens to join its demand that the federal government immediately cancel its contract with Lockheed Martin, and that Statistics Canada be given the funding and capacity to fully carry out an activity as important as the Canadian census.
Robert Bulmash runs "Private Citizen," a for-profit company that assists people in protecting privacy by opting them out of direct marketing lists. Acxiom, a large data aggregator that sells personal information for direct marketing and to the government, has refused to accept Private Citizen's opt-out requests. The company claims that it wants to communicate with each individual personally, rather than allowing them to opt-out through Private Citizen.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and several Members of Congress, Bulmash wrote:
"For decades, the direct marketing industry and it associations have favored private sector mechanisms over government regulation in dealing with the consumer privacy issues. Yet, when Private Citizen, Inc. presents such a private sector mechanism to Acxiom, Acxiom diligently rejects it though the use of extraordinary clich�s."
He concludes by requesting an investigation into the practices of Acxiom:
"I believe it is time for Congress and the FTC to examine the actual practices of the database marketing industry, and its true commitment to privacy. With the recently amended Telemarketing Sales Rule in place, perhaps a companion opt-out law and regulation concerning the database marketing / junk mail industry is now appropriate."
A new report has found that some career web sites, recruitment services and automated job-application kiosks do not provide adequate privacy safeguards. The report, authored by Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, states that too many job sites do not keep information posted in resumes protected from third parties. Dixon has urged the Federal Trade Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigate how job and recruitment sites handle personal information.
As the Federal Communications and Federal Trade Commissions take action to give individuals some control over telemarketing and spam, the Postal Service seems to be catering more and more to junk mailers. For instance, a new cooperative mailing rule allows for-profit mailers to send solicitations under the guise of charities. In many situations, this results in the for-profit mailer pocketing the majority of the money raised in the name of the charity. This is likely to increase junk mail, and individuals' calls for more control over unwanted mail advertisements. Special interest groups are responding, trying to thwart calls for a national do-not-mail list.
A new report issued by consulting firm A.T. Kearney found that it will cost consumer product companies millions of dollars to comply with Wal-Mart's new RFID requirements. The company announced in June that it expects its top 100 suppliers to use RFID tracking technology by the end of 2004, and the rest of its suppliers to do so in 2005. Wal-Mart is poised to save billions by employing the technology to tag and track its products. Privacy advocates are concerned abou the invasiveness of RFID's, which can track an item's location, among other capabilities.
The Senate has voted down an amendment that would have strengthened pending financial privacy legislation. The amendment, proposed by California Democrat Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, would have instituted a California state law provision that prevents financial institutions from sharing customers' information with its affiliates. The Senate will vote today on the financial privacy bill, whose current form would preempt stronger state laws, such as the one in California.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a "spousal" exception to the federal wiretapping laws. In Glazner v. Glazner, a man filed for divorce from his wife, and then placed a wiretap on her phone. When the wife discovered the wiretap, she sued, but both the trial court and an initial panel of the appeals court ruled that there was a spousal exemption to the wiretapping laws that exempted the husband from the law. On an appeal to an en banc panel of the 11th Circuit, the court overturned the spousal exemption, and found that the husband violated the federal wiretapping laws.
